Generosity: This is the Way

Introduction

At a previous church, we had a nintendo in the youth room fully equipped with Mario Kart, and we played CONSTANTLY.

We played every day for lunch for about an hour, you know, so that we could better minister to the kids.

It got to a point where I was able to play Rainbow Road in reverse with a blindfold on.

Some of you get me.

One of the students who would come over after school was going through a rough time.

His parents were going through a divorce.

And born out of that, his behavior started to become a problem at school.

So he was finding himself suspended, or even at points expelled from school.

Which only made the behavior deteriorate further.

And so I gave him what I believe to be nerdiest piece of advice I’ve ever given:

Life is like Mario Kart: Bad laps happen. It’s all about how you respond.

You’re going to get hit by a shell from a bad guy!

You might crash!

You might slip on a banana peel!

But that’s not the end of the race!

It doesn’t matter how long your in first, what matters is when.

I think so much in life is all about how we respond.

To be sure, much of life is on autopilot.

A happens, we respond with B.

But that’s not always true, is it?

Some of the moments that have left me laughing in tears have been when someone offers up a response that I didn’t expect.

Some of the moments that I’ve been most moved in my spirit have been when someone has offered up an extraordinary example of courage in response to a difficult situation.

As we’re continuing on our “This is the Way” series, where we’re exploring the marks of True Christians, this week is all about a certain type of response.

Unpack the Text

In Jerusalem/Holy Week

It’s important to know where this story comes, and on what stage.

Jesus has already entered in to Jerusalem on the donkey with the palm branches, so he’s caused a bit of a stir already.

He’s in the Temple, which is a much bigger deal than the local synagogues that we’ve seen him in thus far.

We Presbyterians don’t really have an equivalent. I’ve been to the PC USA headquarters, and it kind of looks like…an office building.

The temple is the big show. It’s a big stage. Everyone is watching.

All around the outer gate of the temple were these kind of reverse funnel things called Trumpets.

There were trumpets available for every aspect of Temple ministry.

There was a trumpet for the Rabbis

There was a trumpet for the decorations.

There was a trumpet for the incense they used during services.

Part of what I love about this story in the Bible is that Jesus is just…observing.

He’s taking it all in.

He’s noticing big things, and little things.

He’s just observing the world around him.

We would do well to be more observant of our world on a regular basis.

Rich and Poor

Jesus first notices the rich people.

He notices them because they want to be noticed.

These rich people are going down the line and dropping in huge donations to the Temple to keep the work going, and they’re not being particularly quiet about it.

And to be sure, this is a habit that continues in our world today among the wealthiest among us.

Wealthy people sure do spend a whole bunch of time creating foundations and organizations that are named after them...

But we have to be careful here for a second...

We have a tendency to think that “rich people” are “other people,” not us.

If you make $33,000 a year, you are in the top 5% globally.

There are 6.2 billion people less wealthy than you on the planet.

Another way I’ve heard this said is that if you have access to a tap where water comes out, you are wealthy.

So we should approach this passage with a bit of trepidation.

It might be talking about us.

But then, Jesus observes a poor widow.

Sad to say that in Jesus day the entire economic system says that a woman has no value outside of her husband.

Husbands were the property owners, and property was really the only way to earn money in Jesus’ day.

Not to mention, women were generally considered only property themselves.

So to be a widow, you had no means of income, you had no means of sustaining yourself, you had no worth to society as a whole.

And yet...

Here she comes to the temple, and walks up to one of the trumpets.

Maybe one that had some meaning to her?

Maybe one that had some meaning to her late husband?

Maybe just whatever one she could get closest to.

And she drops in two pennies.

I tried to chase down the exact worth of these coins, but in the Greek is really is just the smallest measure of money available at the time.

Two pennies.

Jesus has some commentary on this:

Somehow he either knows, or is just guessing, that this represents all that this women has to live on.

She just threw in her life savings, all of two pennies.

And for Jesus, this is real generosity.

Generosity is not just giving a little bit off the top, no matter how big that top is for you.

Generosity is not making a big show of how much you give.

Authentic Generosity, Jesus would say in other places, is actually next to impossible for the super wealthy.

Generosity, according to Jesus, is when you give it all.

Generosity and trust

Now be careful, because the voices of reason might start kicking in right about now.

How can you give everything you have?

Won’t you need to rely on someone else’s generosity then?

Won’t you be left out in the cold?

Won’t you be screwed?

What this widow has is what is required of us to be truly generous. She trusts God.

You have to trust God in order to give of yourself to the point of vulnerability.

You have to trust God in order to want others to thrive as well as you are right now.

You have to trust God to give anything of yourself.

And the inverse in this situation tends to be true as well.

Show me a stingy person, and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t trust enough in God.

Show me someone who trusts only in their own ability to work and earn, and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t trust enough in God.

Show me someone who doesn’t care what their brother or sister’s situation is, and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t trust enough in God.

Application

Generosity is always a response

So much of how we live our lives is how we respond to who we think God is.

If you think of God as angry, as vengeful, as wrathful, then you are likely to be an unpleasant follower of Jesus!

If you think that God is stingy, that the resources of God’s love are finite, then you’re going to be stingy.

Or by contrast, if you carry a vision of God that is loving, that is a God of abundance, of a God that takes care of even the sparrows, so surely God will take care of us, then it’s a little bit easier to make sure that you are giving to everyone else around you.

We should be generous with

Mercy

Like we talked about last week, Forgiveness and mercy are two things we should be extremely generous with.

There was certainly something about that message last week that resonated with folks.

Throughout the week, folks have been calling me up and telling me that they called up a person from their past and offered forgiveness, and how liberating it was.

Which is awesome! And it tells me two things:

Mercy and forgiveness are an unending pool. You always have more and more forgiveness to give away.

And…maybe this is illustrative of all the ways we can be generous, it actually feels better to be generous than it does to hold on to things.

It feels better to forgive than it does to hold a grudge.

It feels better to offer mercy than it does to demand sacrifice.

It feels better to give than it does to hold on to something.

All that is to say, forgiveness is not limited to last week’s sermon.

Some of you this week have called me up and told me that you took that very first step on the road to forgiveness with someone else, and saints I couldn’t be more proud of you for that!

What’s it look like to take that next step this week?

If last week it was a text message, maybe this week it’s a (socially distant) get together.

If last week was a prayer, maybe it’s time to send an e-mail this week.

If last week you just decided to start the process, maybe this week it’s time to put that person on your prayer list and keep them in front of you all week long.

Wherever you’ve been on that roadmap, if you took step one last week, today is a pretty solid opportunity for step two.

And if you didn’t start at all last week, this is a pretty good week to give it a shot anyway!

And to serve as a reminder, we can be generous with our mercy in response to Christ, who has been nothing but generous in his mercy toward us.

Our time

One finite resource we have that we can choose to be generous with is our time.

Each of us only has the same 24 hours a day.

Shortly before the pandemic began, I read a book on Sabbath keeping that suggested that we’re wrong when we joke that if we only had more hours in the day to be productive, we’d be able to rest more.

A couple of national lockdowns leaving many of us in our houses for months on end enthusiastically co-signed that assessment, didn’t they?

I don’t know about you but I was busier during the lockdowns than I was when life was normal.

It’s not about the number of hours in our days, it’s about how we budget them.

Who could you be generous with when it comes to your time?

A few years ago I was working with a group of teenagers, and the discussion came up about time spent with their parents.

A young man in our congregation had parents who were equal parts super wealthy, and super busy.

They owned quite a few restaurants, including a few out of state, so they were always traveling to check in on things and run their businesses.

For his part, this teenager had everything he could possibly want in life.

X-Box, Playstation, Quad, snowboards, computers, toys toys toys, you name it he had it.

And he was miserable just about always.

When we asked him why, it was because he never ever got to see his parents.

I am learning as a father of young boys that one of the best places I can be generous with my time is with my kids.

How many of you have to hear “dada” three or four times before you’re fully present with your kids? I know I do from time to time.

Maybe we need to be more generous with our time at work, though I’ll be honest that’s almost never really the answer.

No one on their death bed ever gazes up to the heavens and says “I should have worked more.”

Maybe we need to be more generous with our time through mission and charitable work.

Maybe we could volunteer more time here at the church with the youth groups or VBS or other opportunities?

Where is it that you could spend more time?

Quick rule of thumb when it comes to being generous with your time: Know what you say yes to before you can say no.

If I have said yes to an extra meeting, I have probably said no to rest and restoration.

Conversely, if I have said yes to my kids, that probably means I’m going to have to say no to a whole lot of good opportunities.

Our money

Nothing like watching Presbyterian’s squirm in their seats when we talk about money!

But truth be told, I don’t think any topic should be off the table, and this indeed is one of them.

Let’s state the obvious right up front, we should be generous with our offerings to the church.

First of all, like the widow it can be a sign of our trust in God that we are willing to give back to God what is his in the first place.

Secondly, we together can do vastly more good in the world than any of us could on our own.

We can make a huge difference at City Mission.

We can make a huge difference in the community of Pancake.

We can make a huge difference (if we want to) in places like Haiti or Malawi or Guatemala or Mexico.

And all of that is before we get to things like keeping the lights on and new sound systems so we can hear each other.

So I do encourage us as a church to continue to be generous with our offerings.

Stewardship in a lot of churches is a conversation that happens once a year, and I don’t think this is a conversation that only impacts our lives once a year.

I think it’s constant.

But more than that, are we generous with our money in other places?

You can tell exactly how seriously you trust God by how much you tip your waiter or waitress at a restaurant.

You can tell exactly how seriously you trust God by how much you support local businesses, particularly in these difficult days for these business owners.

You can tell exactly how seriously you trust God by how much you give to charities, organizations, and groups that are trying to make the world a better place.

It’s been said that if you really want to know where a person’s values are, check their bank statement.

And if you’re shaky on this, do your own research!

What kind of values do your bank statements from the last month broadcast?

Do they broadcast generosity and giving?

Or are they a bit closer to mine sometimes, broadcasting a deep love of Amazon and Chipotle?

If we are purchasing outside our values, then maybe it’s time for some self-examination and some habit change to bring us back in line.

Take the next steps this week:

Pray each and every time you pay for anything.

Set up a Time Budget.

Give a little bit more to something you believe in.